Feed-trough.



PATENTED EEB. 4, 190s.

Ez. PEAESON. EEED TEOUGE.- APPLICA'HON FILED SEPT-13.1906.

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'Wl/@imaxes L ZUARD PEARSON, OF KEARNEY, MISSOURI.

FEED-TROUGH.

Specification of Letters Patent.

y Patented Feb. 4, 1908.

Application filed September 13. 1906. Serial N0. 334,442.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, L ZUARD PEARsoN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Kearney, in the county of Clay and State of Missouri, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Feed-Troughs, of whichthe following is a specification.

This invention relates to feed troughs, and my object is to produce atrough of this character which can be set to accommodate feed ofdifferent characters. I

A further object is to produce a device of this character of simple,strong, durable and cheap construction.

With these general objects in view and others as hereinafter appear, theinvention consists in certain novel and peculiar features ofconstruction and organization as herein after described and claimed, andin order that it may be fully understood reference is to be had to theaccompanying drawing, in which- Figure 1, is a sectional perspectiveview of an automatic feed trough embodying my invention. F ig. 2, is avertical central longitudinal section of the saine.

In the said drawings, a'hopper consists of parallel walls 1, walls 2converging upwardly and outwardly from the upper end of walls 1,vertical walls 3 rising from the outer or u pper ends of walls 2 andwalls 4 converging upwardly and inwardly from the upper edges of walls3, and secured to the upper sides of one of the walls 4 are cleats 5 towhich the cover 6 is hinged as at 7, said cover having a handle 8 forconvenience of manipulation when it is desired to deposit feed in thehopper. The hopper is braced by a series of cross rods 9 connectingwalls 3, and by a series of cross rods 10 connecting walls 1. Hinged asat 11 to the lower edges of walls 1 are bars or valves 12, the sameconverging inwardly and downwardly in their normal or closed position,as shown in Fig. 1, their lower edges in such position engaging thedownwardly diverging inner walls 13 of a pair of troughs.

14 indicates the bottoms of the troughs extending outwardly from the.lower edges of walls 13 and 15 indicate the outer walls of the troughs,the same extending upwardly and outwardly from the outer edges ofbottoms 14 and terminating in a plane below the lower edges of thevalves as shown clearly in Fig. 1.

16 indicates the end walls of the troughs and 17 partitions bearing attheir opposite ends against and secured to the walls 1 of the-hopper,and the walls 15 of the troughs, said partitions dividing the troughsinto a plurality of communicating compartments and having theirdownwardly and inwardly disposed edges 1S diverging downward withrespect to the valves 12 to permit the latter to open sufficiently wideto accommodate bran and chop and other feeds which have a tendency topaci; in the hopper and feed slowly down to the troughs, and for thepurpose of limiting the opening movement of the valves to accommodategrain such as oats and other cereals or foods which will gravitate morereadily from the hopper, l provide a series of eccentrically pivotedbuttons 19, the same being secured on en d walls 16 and one or more ofthe partitions 17. By properly adjusting thesev eccentrically pivotedbuttons it is obvious that the valves may be held closed or opened atany desired angle. The device is made rigid by a series of cross cleats2O underlying and connecting the bottoms of the troughs.

Assuming that the device is charged with grain or other food stuff, itwill be apparent that by turning buttons 19, the weight of such foodstuff will cause the valves to swing open and permit a quantity of thegrain or other feed to pass down into each trough for its full length sothat the hogs, sheep or other animals may obtain access to it, thepartitions 17 serving to prevent one or more of the animals from gettinginto the troughs or from assuming such a position as to prevent othersobtaining access to the feed, as only by standing directly opposite canthe animals obtain convenient access to the contents of the troughsbetween any pair of partitions. The latter thus insurethe simultaneousfeeding of a number of the animals corresponding to the number ofcompartments into which the troughs are divided. If the material tendsto pack in the hopper the rooting ofthe hogs against the valves movesthe latter and thereby causes them to agitate the contents of the hopperand effect the discharge of the feed therefrom into the troughs.

ln case of rain the,.water will overfiow the outer walls of the troughswithout coming into contact with the feed in the hopper the lower endsof the valves as hereinbefore stated are above the plane of the upperedges of said walls. If it be desired to feed the animals with a liquidfood it may be poured v merated as desirable and I wish it to be understood that I reserve the right to make such changes in the form,proportion, detail construction and arrangement of the parts as do notinvolve a departure from the spirit and scope of the appended claims. l

Having thus described the invention what I claim as new and desire tosecure by Letters Patent, is

1. A feed trough comprising a hopper having a cover, troughs below andat opposite sides of the hopper with their inner walls converging upwardand meeting at a point Within the hopper, partitions pitched downwardand outward from opposite sides of the hopper into the trough and havingtheir lower edges substantially paralleling the contiguo-us inner wallsof the troughs, valves hinged to the lower edges of the hopper andadapted to swing outward under the partitions or inward of the sidewalls of the hopper and against the inner walls of the troughs, and turnbuttons secured to certain of the partitions and adapted to projectinward thereof to hold the valves closed or to be turned to permit saidvalves to swing open.

2. A feed trough, comprising a hopper, valves hinged to the lower edgesof the same, troughs below the hopper and having their inner wallsconverging upwardly and meeting at a point within the hopper land abovethe lower edges of the valves thereof and having their outer wallsdiverging upwardly and terminating in a plane lowerthan that of thelower edges of the valves, partitions subdividing the troughs andbearing at their opposite ends against the hopper and the outer walls ofthe troughs, and turn buttons suitably supported and adapted to limitthe outward movement of the valves.

In testimony whereof I al-BX my signature, in the presence of twoWitnesses.

L ZUARD PEARSON. Iitnesses S. C. GREENFIELD, GEORGE RILEY.

